Search

This paper examines urban and well-educated Taiwanese women's resistance to the dominance of the valorization of female appearance, providing ethnography of undoing beauty in East Asia's era of post-developmentalism. Findings reveal the importance of the factor of time in their resistance to bodily grooming. First, participants have a "holistic" understanding of "doing beauty"; they consider this set of gender inequalities "chrono-normativity," which serves as a vector of social control. Second, the burden of long-term sustainability of aesthetic investment often turns into an unbearable weight that includes an endless quest for extreme slenderness, the exhausting immaterial labor of enacting cuteness and hetero-likability, and the difficulty of long-term financial affordability. Third, due to a bleak economic outlook and strong gender inequalities, disapproval of the quest for beauty showcases women's rejection of pursuing market success based on an aspirational and future-oriented temporality. Participants' "lying down" attitude and their emphasis on "assured little happiness" are witness to an anti-aspirational temporality, since women seek a present-focused and non-dominated experience of temporality. I argue that this anti-aspirationalism should be seen as an alternative configuration of neoliberal rationality where the care of the self and its ethos of individualism eclipse the pursuit of economic productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the ideology of pro-work conservatism prevails in East Asia, scholars have largely overlooked its discursive construction in media communication from a linguistic perspective. This paper examines the discursive construction of pro-work conservatism in 3,000 Weibo posts with the most "likes" in response to China's implementation of the three-child policy. Using the sociosemantic approach as an analytic framework, the paper finds that three dominant themes underpin the discourse of pro-work conservatism: women's sacrifice in the labour market, the high cost of raising children, and gender-essentialist norms. This discourse is articulated in the posts via a number of discursive strategies, including authorization, morality, and rationalisation. This paper sheds light on the influence of the one-child policy and the awakening of feminist consciousness in the new era and highlights the implications of language use in shaping gender-role ideologies to influence public perception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Professor Gavin W. Jones dedicated an impressive 58-year career to extensive research on various aspects of population and development in Asia. As a seasoned consultant, he was pivotal in shaping population policies and programs in more than 10 Asian countries, impacting the region’s demographic landscape. Throughout his illustrious career, Gavin has left an indelible mark through his prolific publications, with 30 books, over 180 journal articles, and book chapters. His body of work covered various demographic subjects in the Asia-Pacific region, significantly contributing to our understanding of population dynamics in Southeast, South, and East Asia. His research has been instrumental in informing policy decisions in these regions by providing evidence-based recommendations. In addition to his consultancy and academic achievements, Gavin actively engaged in professional networks, fostering collaborations and facilitating knowledge exchange among fellow demographers and researchers. His commitment to mentorship has been invaluable, nurturing emerging demographers and supporting the next generation of population scholars in population and development. The present paper aims to delve into Professor Gavin W. Jones’s specific contributions to elucidate the intricate relationship between population and development, an area that inevitably intersects with other papers in this festschrift on marriage, fertility, and urbanization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a sample of East Asian banks covering the period 1999–2014, this paper analyses the impact of natural disasters on commercial bank performance and how financial integration moderates this relationship. A dynamic GMM model reveals that natural disasters significantly lower deposit ratios but have no contemporaneous relationship with liquidity, credit risk, profitability and default risk. There is also evidence of a lagged effect of disasters, increasing deposits and lowering liquidity one year after the event. Furthermore, foreign banking claims, specifically those extended by regional Asian lenders, help to alleviate the deposits decline in the aftermath of natural disasters. These baseline findings are mainly driven by severely affected countries. Overall, the paper highlights the role of commercial bank deposits and foreign banking claims as sources of finance for post-disaster recovery. In particular, the resilience of Asian foreign claims in the event of natural disasters provides evidence to support intra-regional financial integration in East Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This introductory article aims to present an overview of the contribution that East Asian scholars have made to Translation Studies as a field of enquiry. Apart from some contributions from countries such as Thailand and Vietnam, most of the publications of the last four decades involve Chinese, Korean, and Japanese themes and are authored by scholars from these areas or focused on the languages and cultures of China, Korea and Japan. The article considers the publications on audiovisual as well as literary and news translation, highlighting articles, book chapters and monographs that have delved into translations involving East Asian languages, notably Chinese, Korean and Japanese. The final section introduces the selection of papers that conform this thematic issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on three Far East cabinets that have ended up in Sweden for various reasons and on various routes. Some specific characteristics have been analysed using various scientific methods: sectional microscopy, wood taxonomy, X–ray fluorescence microscopy, pyrolysis-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, strontium isotope ratio measurement, and radiocarbon dating. The results show that the cabinets contain wood from species endemic to Japan, namely asunaro (Thujopsis dolabrata) and hinoki (Chamaecyparis obtuse). They are coated with urushi sap derived from Toxicodendron vernicifluum trees, in two cases confirmed to be harvested in China, and one case probably blended with sap exuded from Toxicodendron succedanea harvested in North Vietnam. Their black appearance is due to a soot pigment typical of many products from the early Edo period or older. The data obtained with scientific methods, unavailable in the past, improve knowledge about these cabinets. Such new information should be made available to scholars and the general public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This conceptual article is to problematize Western-centered comparative curriculum studies in South Korea, drawing on research related to postcolonial criticisms of comparative education and curriculum studies, and to suggest a decolonial research imagination for comparative curriculum research in South Korea and East Asia broadly, based on Kuan-Hsing Chen's idea of Asia as method. To this end, I elaborate on Chen's concepts of inter-referencing and critical syncretism for decolonizing the compliant research imagination. Additionally, I argue for the shift of the point of reference towards Asia, the extension of curriculum manifestation as a unit of comparison with curriculum conceptualized as a space for constructing cultural imaginary and subjectivity, and curriculum researchers' onto-epistemological considerations as a comparativist. I conclude the paper with a caution not to dismiss Western contributions to curriculum research in Asia and the possibilities of the existence of resistance to Western-dominant knowledge structure in South Korean curriculum scholarship in the forms of translation and/or hybridity. This study can contribute to decolonizing the intersection of comparative education and curriculum studies that has been Western-centered in South Korea and suggesting a transgressive onto-epistemological orientation for comparative curriculum studies in the contexts of South Korea in particular and East Asia in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

UNESCO's relatively high prestige across East Asia has spurred intensifying efforts by governments to use its imprimatur to legitimate official narratives of the past and visions of the future. This article focuses on China's use of UNESCO as an arena for competitive national 'branding' in the education field, especially relating to STEM and AI. We analyse the Chinese state's engagement with UNESCO's education work in the context of shifts in budgetary and political influence within the organisation, and of a growing 'securitisation' of education within China itself. We show how Chinese engagement with UNESCO's educational agenda reflects both domestic political considerations and the 'major country diplomacy' of Xi Jinping, as manifested in the 'Belt and Road Initiative' and intensifying strategic competition with the USA. We conclude by discussing the implications of rising Chinese influence within the organisation for UNESCO's capacity for articulating a coherent and consistently humanistic vision for education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anoplophora chinensis Forster (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) is a highly polyphagous and invasive species native to East Asia that makes tunnels in the stems of a variety of broad-leaved plant species and cultivated plant species, as well as citrus and hazelnut. In this study, we collected A. chinensis from hazelnut orchards in Sakarya province of Türkiye, and subsequently recovered the parasitoid Megaselia scalaris (Diptera: Phoridae) from dead adult beetles. The present study reports M. scalaris as a new natural enemy of A. chinensis, and more study is needed on this species' behaviour and biological parameters as a parasitoid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese Tofu (1971), edited by the acclaimed female writer Lin Haiyin in Taiwan, came out in a rapidly changing Cold War order in East Asia. Focusing on this previously neglected work, this article offers a close reading of how a mundane foodstuff shed light on contested Chineseness, one informed by Lin's own gendered experience in the diaspora. Rather than reifying or essentializing "Chinese" foodways, tofu opened up the possibility of a more cosmopolitan geography. That geography pointed to former imperial frontiers, the Sinitic cultural sphere, and beyond. The book's afterlife in reform-era China underscores the ongoing debate over what it means to be Chinese. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past few decades, the pendulum of regime change across the world has swung dramatically from democratization to autocratization. There has been much contention and debate about the extent, variation, and causes surrounding these processes. This special issue turns the spotlight away from regime change and political elites towards societal agents, particularly societal agents who mobilize and resist against autocratization unfolding within democratic and authoritarian regimes. In this introductory article, we review and critique the literature on autocratization studies, and introduce our concept of "agents of resistance." We argue that agents of resistance can develop and engage in repertoires against autocratization under any regime type. Specifically, the contributions in this special issue highlight seemingly mundane repertoires of resistance, and how they can grow through cumulative interactions among societal agents, and between societal agents and the state. Scholars should recognize the full spectrum of resistance and both their liberal and illiberal elements to better assess the impact on global trends of democratization or autocratization. Finally, this article discusses some methodological trends with regards to the existing literature, and introduces the contributions that compose this special issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The feasibility of the Northern Sea Route (NSR) is assessed against the established Suez Canal route (SCR) and the longer Cape of Good Hope route. The analysis reflects real practices of route choice for oil products between the Far East and Europe depending on varying market conditions. A required freight rate (RFR) model is developed based on both optimal speeds and real speeds. Automatic Identification System (AIS) data are used to identify route choice patterns and real speeds of Long Range 2 (LR2) tankers during 2013–2020. Cargo value on-board and alternative fuel types/modes based on oil, and current and future technologies of dual fuel Oil/Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) are considered. Cape is a competitive alternative under low fuel/commodity prices, and its use is explained, especially during the oil oversupply in 2015–2016 and 2020. The NSR is more competitive when moving towards short-hauls, under high fuel/commodity prices, and discounted or zero icebreaking fees, but is uncompetitive most of the times when ice damage repairs are included in the model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the effect of Confucianism, an influential cultural belief and ethical philosophy in East Asia, on business strategy. Employing a large-scale archival dataset of Chinese public firms covering 2007 to 2020, we provide evidence that Confucianism is positively associated with analytical-oriented strategies. Our empirical findings remain intact after accounting for alternative Confucianism measures, controlling formal institutions and religions, instrumental variable methods, and other approaches to addressing endogeneity and robustness issues. Cross-sectional analyses further reveal that the documented effect is more evident for non-state-owned firms, firms with executives lacking overseas experience, and those operating in higher economic policy uncertainty. Overall, our study sheds light on how traditional culture, an important dimension of informal institutions, shapes corporate strategic decisions in emerging markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To date, research on traumatic stress and treatment-seeking behavior has primarily focused on Western populations. Despite experiencing similar levels of symptomatology, mental health service utilization appears lower among East Asian populations. Stigma toward mental health services may be one barrier to treatment-seeking, especially among individuals who have experienced potentially traumatic events; however, previous research has been primarily conducted in the United States. Less is known about predictors of treatment-seeking attitudes among populations residing in East Asia, particularly college students. The present study examined the relationship between trauma, mental health services stigma, and treatment-seeking attitudes among undergraduate students in Southwestern China. Self-report measures of trauma exposure, posttraumatic stress disorder symptomatology, mental health services stigma, and treatment-seeking attitudes were administered. We hypothesized that students with greater severity of traumatic symptoms would endorse more positive attitudes toward treatment-seeking if they reported lower levels of mental health services stigma. Mental health services stigma was a strong predictor of negative attitudes toward treatment-seeking, whereas neither trauma exposure nor traumatic symptomatology were associated with treatment-seeking attitudes. The significant association between mental health services stigma and treatment-seeking attitudes underscores the importance of destigmatizing mental health to encourage treatment-seeking among the Chinese college student population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This book, titled "The United States and the East Asia Society in the Cold War Era," is a collection of articles that were presented in a 2017 workshop. The articles aim to shed light on the significant impact of the Cold War on both the United States and East Asian societies. The topics covered include the American garrison in mainland China, Taiwan, Japan, the Korean Peninsula, and the Soviet troops in East Asia. The articles also explore the fate of medical institutions, women, diplomats, and scholars during this period. The studies in this book are based on primary sources such as police archives, official reports, newspapers, magazines, and diaries, and they aim to challenge the prevailing notion of the Cold War as solely a military and diplomatic contest by examining social issues and the impact on the societies involved. The book also highlights gendered perspectives, the history of drugs and violence, and features international, transnational, and comparative perspectives. While the book has received praise, there are some areas for improvement, such as further exploration of gender and racial dimensions, and providing more historical background in some articles. Overall, this book provides a comprehensive examination of the Cold War in East Asia and is recommended for both professional historians and the general public interested in history. [Extracted from the article]